Charmed
by 9Ruku1
Summary: Set in a world where people known as 'Fighters' possess unique abilities known as 'Charm' and use it to fight against one another in spectator sports called 'Tourneys'. Fighter Blaine Anderson while travelling across the eastern continent stumbles upon the quaint town Lima. But little does he know that this sleepy town contains its own terrifying secret.
1. Chapter 1

**Notes**

Hi everyone. This is my first attempt at writing fan fiction and since English is not my first language, it is quite choppy. Feel free to let me know any mistakes you find. I am open to all sorts of criticism.

**CHAPTER 1**

The tall guy with the Mohawk was intently chewing a single piece of straw while leaning against the tree on the field. Muscles of his chin kept rippling with progression of the act. Blaine while perched up on the neighboring fence kept observing this immensely interesting action unfold. The guy was probably 6 feet tall quite muscular and looked like a delinquent with his wife beater, black leather vest, leather jeans, also black and boots. Why was Blaine watching this guy so intently? Blaine asked himself. Well, for one the guy was kind of hot, Blaine thought to himself. But again was not his type. Actually he didn't have anything better to do. He was new to this town named Lima. He had been travelling east for couple of months now and came across some player vagabonds who told him about this sleepy town downhill and that a tourney was underway here. But so far no one could give him any information about this tourney and some hours later Blaine found himself sitting on this fence and staring at Mohawk guy near the tree.

"What the hell do you think you are doing with those luft balloons?"

Blaine hadn't noticed a little girl probably around the age of ten had joined the Mohawk guy by the tree; couple of queer looking balls was floating around her in mid air.

"Well isn't it obvious Noah I'm here to practice" the girl snorted indignantly.

"Didn't mom tell you not to use luft balloons unless you have a better grasp of your charm?" Must be siblings Blaine Mused.

"That is the exact reason I have chosen this desolate place genius!"

"What's with the snark fest Becky?"

"Are you gonna rat me out to mom? Because If you are…."

Noah cut her short with a disinterested "whatever" and then there was a zipping sound with a cloud of sand and with that the guy was gone. "Noah you jerk! Come back here" the girl yelled but was soon over come with a bout of cough due to the floating sand particles. When the sand cloud subsided along with the coughing bout, the girl clasped both of her hands tightly outstretching them to one of the floating balls which had already scattered away and started shooting needles through her clasped hands. The ball disappeared with a whoosh sound. The girl kept aiming and striking the balls with her needles. Suddenly the girl started to swell up and the next thing Blaine knew was thousands of sharp needles were flying at his direction. But before they could reach him they were effectively burned down by a fire wall.

"Wow! Never seen an elemental charm before" uttered a wide eyed Becky, finally noticing Blaine.

Blaine hopped down from the fence and approached her.

"Some fine charm you got there little girl" he drawled.

"I am not a little girl, just need to practice my control." Blushed Becky. "So mister u new around here?" she added.

"Yes. Actually I am here for the tourney. Do you know where it is taking place?"

"You mean underground tourney? So you too wanna get beat up by Noah? Huh" Becky added with a smirk.

"Noah?"

"My brother. He is an idiot but also the undisputed champion"

"Oh! That we'll see" Smiled Blaine.

Becky gave him the address.

…

Blaine quickly dodged the swinging hammer fist of Dave Karofsky, which crushed the earth just next to him with an ominous rumble. Not to be deterred Karofsky threw his mountain kick at a quickly dodging Blaine effectively creating a crater in the ground. "Despite his freakishly large size this guy sure can move fast" Blaine mused. They were at it for almost an hour, Blaine dodging his opponents powerful body attacks by inches or millimeters, if not for his 'Fire Glide' he would have been squashed like an ant a long time ago. He was waiting for his opponent to get tired first to launch his attack. But clearly that plan was not working. Finally Blaine decided to take matters in his own hands. He needed to dictate the pace of the game or he would lose.

With a thundering roar Dave Karfosky jumped and launched himself to sky. He was going to finish this game with this attack and squash the pest. Blaine squinted to look up at the receding figure high up in the sky. He knew what was coming, the fearsome 'Body slam'. He smiled and braced himself for the attack. Karofsky was now dropping at a high velocity towards earth, towards Blaine, he had got this.

With an earth shattering boom the mountain of muscle smashed into the tourney arena encasing it in a smoke of sand clouds. The crowd cheered with a roar of applause, but Karofsky knew he had missed Blaine who had again dodged in the last minute.

"Look he has dodged again" someone cried from the crowd pointing at Blaine who had jumped above during dodging, through the haze of sand and dirt. Blaine swung his hands mid air to create the 'Ball of fire' the second hottest attack in his repertoire and threw it towards his still earth bound opponent. Karofsky wasn't fast enough to dodge it and the scorching ball of fire burned through his hypertrophied muscles, he cried out in agony. Then something hit him square in the jaw, something hot! Intensely hot! David hadn't felt anything like this before. It was like thousands of red hot needles piercing his flesh. His cry become muffled eyes gawked out in shearing pain… "Was I going to die?" was his last thought before passing out. Blaine stood near panting breathlessly and rubbing the knuckles of his right hand. 'Fist of Fire' always left him with an after burn, after all it was his hottest attack.

The winner is 'Blaine Anderson' the game coordinator announced amidst thundering applause of the crowd.

…

Noah Puckerman looked on from the sidelines as some medics struggled to take Dave, who was still passed out, out of the arena. Noah must admit this Blaine guy was strong. He hadn't seen any elementalist around here. Elemental charms are rare. _Where did he come from?_ But again at the end of the day it didn't matter because this guy is going to be crushed by Noah. Noah Puckerman was the undisputed king of this battle arena. He had won this underground tourney three years in a row. Noah could easily travel and participate in one of those fancy competition tournaments like the King's Cup. There is sure a hell lot of money there but where's the thrill? With all the protective gears people had to wear there and the strange scoring system they might as well be kids only tournament. There were no risks no fear of getting hart. More over Noah needed to partner with some sort of looser to be in those tournaments, and he had enough douches in his life. He didn't need more. But here in the arena he felt alive. Yes it may be illegal, it may not have license of security from the 'Game Governing Body', but according to Noah this is what tourneys should be like…raw and real, where one can exert his charm to his fullest abilities, not the protective bubble of licensed tourneys.

Noah glanced at the competition roaster. Who was the next looser coming his way? Huh, lady Hummel? "It should be a cake walk" Noah muttered.

…..

Blaine was going to take some rest before his next match but then he saw the Mohawk guy walking in to the arena. So Blaine decided to watch this. He was curious. Blaine noticed the crowd clearly loved him by the amount of cheer he was drawing from them. Now Blaine saw Noah's opponent Kurt Hummel. 'Cute' was the first word that came to Blaine's mind. Kurt was quite tall with a slim but toned body like that of a dancer with long limbs. He was wearing a tight fitting peach dress shirt with equally tight fitted navy blue jeans which lovingly embraced his long but strong legs and a perky buttock like a second skin. A bright red scarf was fastened around his swan neck deliciously contrasting against the flawless alabaster skin. But the most striking feature was his eyes. They reminded him of the solitary mountain lake that reflects the deep blue of the sky and the tender green of the woods. Wow! Blaine didn't know he was capable of such cheesy thoughts. But one thing was clear in his brain, Blaine had to have him.

Noah smirked at his opponent. "Wanna get killed lady boy?" Kurt raised those almond shaped blue green gems to look at his opponent, a shadow of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. For a moment Blaine thought those eyes flickered at his direction. A mild breeze blew tussling his curls, carrying a sweet scent and before he knew he was standing in a meadow covered with ruby red flowers. Kurt was standing at some distance under a cherry blossom tree in full bloom. A gentle breeze was playing with his chestnut hair and his long elfin fingers were dancing in the wind trying to capture the ivory petals of the flowers. "Hummel is using illusion" someone cried from afar making Blaine jump and the vision in front of him disappeared like images in a shattered mirror. He was again back to the arena. "Shut it Azimio!" hissed Kurt. Blaine glanced to his side to see the guy next to him being swallowed whole by a giant flower bud sprouting from ground. Did Kurt just do it? Blaine swallowed hard. Blaine hadn't noticed but apparently the competition arena had transformed again. This time it is hard brown earth covered with stout thorny vines and bushes of ominous looking black roses. Even the sky looked threateningly crowded with menacing black clouds. This could not have been illusion! This looked like all too real for that! Then what was it? Blaine hadn't seen anything like this before. He needed to observe this Kurt Hummel more closely.

Noah was charging forward with full speed creating his trademark dirt cloud but Kurt managed to dodge in the last moment with a graceful jump. It was like he was dancing. Kurt kept dodging all of Noah's speed attacks with dancer like grace and poise. It seemed his body had become lighter than the air, like a feather, a black feather. Blaine hadn't noticed until now but Kurt's clothes had turned black sometime during the battle. One other thing that caught Blaine's attention is that Kurt hadn't launched a single attack since the start of the match but somehow the transformed surface had been slowing Noah down. The vine seemed to grow bigger and the more and more thorn bushes started covering the surface as the battle dragged on. Blaine knew the fate of this match wouldn't be to Noah's liking.

Noah stood panting after the millionth failed attempt at attack_. This is looking bad! When did lady Hummel become so strong? His usual dancing attacks are not these strong and what he is doing to the surface is no illusion, it is real._ The cuts and lacerations all over Noah's legs were testament of this. Noah finally decided to use his final attack. _There is no way Kurt will be able to dodge it! He is going to crush him._

The next few events of the fight happened in such a quick succession that Blaine couldn't properly decipher the chain of events. All he saw was Kurt doing fouettes in the centre of arena and creating shock waves, which rippled through the air, with each turn. Noah disappeared in a lightning bolt creating a sonic boom in its wake. There was a powerful clash in mid air creating a blast. After the smoke had gone down Blaine could make out Noah's defeated figure lying on the ground. Towering over him was Kurt wearing a sinister smirk and twirling a stem of black rose with his fingers. "He should regain consciousness within few hours. He is just sleeping anyways" Kurt informed the coordinator. His clothes were already changing back to their original state as was the arena.

Slowly people started to evacuate the arena.

No one noticed the solitary black raven perched up on the rooftop of a nearby building queerly observing the whole proceeding. Finally with a caw it set flight.

**Notes**

So, how was it? Good or bad, let me know. Again constructive criticisms, reviews are highly appreciated. Next chapter will be up soon!:)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes:**  
Hi everyone, sorry for the long wait. Again the mandatory warning, I am not a native English speaker so there are bound to be mistakes, feel free to point them out. I hope you enjoy the chapter. :)

**Chapter 2**

Quinn of the Fabray's lay awake at night contemplating today's events. She was not a person to just sit idly and waste time in thinking and overanalyzing situations, solutions came easy to her, always! The one thing she prided herself was her intellect, even though she considered pride to be a futile emotion_._ But this time around her intellect was clearly failing her. She didn't know what to make out of today's events. At first she thought she had found _the source_ and that was a good lead! But now analyzing things over, she could see herself heading towards a dead end. There was something weird going on in this town but even after one month of thorough investigation she couldn't figure it out. Now she at least had a lead! But again it was so baffling she could hardly believe it.

She could still remember the day she left the 'Fabray Clan'. It was raining cats and dogs and neither her grandmother nor her mother was very happy with her decision. But she had already made her mind and nothing they could do to stop her. Suffice to say the 'good bye' was not amicable. But she should not dwell in past for she knew as a witch she must search for her own magic and gather experience through her travels. Since then she had been travelling through the eastern continent until she came to this town one month ago. She had no intentions of staying more than one night. But something strange happened that night that made her stay. So she rented a cheap motel room and opened a magic shop down in the market to sell 'enchantments'. If she was going to stay here for a while she might as well earn some money. But nothing extra ordinary happened since then until today. Now that finally she had a lead she had to see things through.

She knew underground tourney was a good place to scout for source. She had used the 'dark anima' spell to insert her consciousness inside a raven to spy on the competition, since witches weren't welcome in this sort of tourneys, so she couldn't go there in person. At first everything seemed normal, even the fights were boring except for the fire elementalist, Quinn never thought she would ever encounter an elementalist in this cow town. Then Kurt Hummel entered the arena and everything changed. At first he was using some routine illusion and Quinn was getting frustrated but suddenly the illusion was broken and he started using…._no it can't be, _she chastised herself but the proof was present in her face. But whatever it was, one thing was certain that Kurt Hummel was the source.

Quinn didn't know much about Kurt except that he lived with his parents Burt and Carole and that he had an eye for colorful clothes. Actually she knew Carole who was a frequent customer at her shop. _Oh yes, Kurt also has a sibling _she remembered Carole mentioning to her at some point. That was the extent of her knowledge about Kurt. Oh and she also recalled to have seen Kurt getting harassed by some of the boys his age. Noah was among his tormentors. _Today's fight must have been a sweet revenge for Kurt._ But it was not only Kurt and his _new powers_ that troubled Quinn; there was something weird happening at the tourney this morning. Something she couldn't put her finger on, but something strange that she missed. Oh well, perhaps she needed a closer look.

Quinn decided she needed to keep Kurt on watch. Come morning she would station some of her Ravens near Kurt's house.

Quinn was getting increasingly frustrated with every passing minute. She had been spying Kurt the whole morning, in her raven form. So far nothing was out of ordinary. Apparently today was a free day at the tourney, no fights and Kurt it seemed had decided to roam all over the town doing absolutely nothing for better part of the morning. Thank god Quinn could control these ravens otherwise it would have been a pain to spy on Kurt. Quinn hadn't noticed that Kurt had led her to a field at the outskirts of the town. There was a lone tree standing tall in the middle of the field and a person stood beneath it waving his hands at Kurt. Kurt approached the person with a smile. Quinn recognized the man, the fire elementalist Blaine.

…...

24 hours ago,

Blaine was sitting in the coffee shop sipping what the waiter called a specialty brew of this town and tasted weird. He had noticed Kurt Hummel sitting at a table beside the window and every now and then glancing his way when he thought Blaine was not looking. Blaine smirked; _I have won the game before it even started._ Blaine sauntered over to Kurt's table.

"Hey there gorgeous, mind if I sit here?" Blaine said gesturing at the empty chair across from Kurt.

"You can sit anywhere you want. I don't own this place" Kurt dead-panned.

_Playing hard to get, are we? _"Feisty! I like that about a man" Blaine drawled while occupying the vacant chair.

"Do you speak to every man you meet this way? You must get punched a lot!"

"No I only speak this way with the people who I know plays for my team." Blaine smiled.

"And which team is that?" Kurt said innocently.

"The same team you play for"

"What makes you so sure?"

"Your astonishing fashion sense for one.."

"So you live in 'I love Stereotypes' street?"

"No and there's more"

"Do tell"

"The fact that you have been checking me out for last half an hour makes it pretty obvious."

"I was not" Kurt fumbled as his rosy cheeks turned tomato red. _Aww! So cute! _Blaine mused.

"Look you don't need to be embarrassed. I don't mind. Frankly the attention from an attractive man like you is quite flattering"

Kurt's cheeks turned redder if that was possible. He started fiddling with his coffee mug with eyes downcast.

_Awkward!_ Blaine decided he needed to change the conversation. "So, you had some really fancy moves there in the tourney today..I am impressed"

"Thank you" Kurt mumbled softly licking his lower lips sinfully. Blaine almost wanted to grab him and kiss him senseless._ God! What is wrong with me? Restrain Blaine, restrain! _With some struggle Blaine somewhat regained his composure. "What is it called?" he asked.

"What?" Now those blue green orbs of crystals were staring right at him inquisitively. _Control yourself! _Blaine reminded himself. "Your charm, haven't seen anything like it?"

"Oh! I don't know what it is called…I just do it"

"It seemed like you were dancing. It was amazing"

"Yep, I use dance to influence my surrounding environment. It's difficult than it seems and not very suitable for competitive fights"

"It looked more than okay to me"

"Well it is nice to see someone appreciate my charm. Most people in this town treat me like a joke" Kurt couldn't hide the bitterness in his voice.

"Well then they are idiots"

Kurt smiled at him genuinely and Blaine thought that thousand galaxies lit up at once. _This is definitely weird._

"So what an elementalist like you doing in this cow town? We don't see elites like you here often or, at all."

"So, I am elite?" Blaine was amused.

"Are you not? You must be some kind of noble or something."

"What makes you think that?"

"Aren't all elementalists rich noblemen?"

Blaine couldn't contain his laughter any more. _I mean how clue less a person can be! Yes it is a small provincial town! But this is beyond hilarious._

"You are laughing at me?" Kurt asked incredulously.

"I'm sorry" Blaine replied quickly. "I didn't mean to offend you."

"No no! Pardon me for my ignorance. I am just a dumb country boy. I shouldn't have opened my mouth" Kurt said bitterly.

Blaine reached across the table and grasped Kurt's hand softly."I am really sorry Kurt. I shouldn't have laughed and no I am no elite. My father is rich though, but we didn't get along and there were some matters, so I left home. I have been travelling ever since. So if you are a dumb country boy then I am a penniless vagabond." Blaine said sincerely, then added with a smirk" We make quite a pair. Don't you think?"

"You are such a flirt!" Kurt couldn't resist a small smile.

"And I am beginning to think that you like it."

"I have to go now Blaine. My parents don't know I have participated in this illegal tourney and it's getting late" Kurt said getting up from his chair.

"Wait." Blaine said hurriedly "We should meet up again…like tomorrow, I mean I know we don't have any matches tomorrow…and if you are free then.." Blaine trailed off.

"Are you asking me on a date?" Kurt seemed utterly bemused.

"I am actually"

"Deal" Kurt answered after pondering for a few seconds. They exchanged there mailing address and decided to fix the venue later that night.

Kurt was almost out of the gate when he turned around and called out" It's really nice meeting you Blaine. See you tomorrow"

"Me too sweetheart"

As Kurt exited the shop Blaine threw a triumphant feast up in the air.

Noah Puckerman was standing in a field of black feathers. He looked up to see the sky and was greeted with a grim grey membrane of cloud. The field stretched ahead and merged with the woods, a humongous shapeless mass of black and grey. A woman in a black cloak was standing at the edge of the forest. Noah couldn't see her face but he knew it was a woman. The woman approached him slowly gliding through the carpet of black feather. A sense of all consuming dread ran down his spine but he stood there transfixed. It was as if his feet were glued to the feathery ground. The woman stopped few feet away from her. Her face covered in a dark veil. She slowly extended her right hand, a bony pale claw like appendage clutching a black rose with a thorny stem. Again Noah's body betrayed him. He took a slow step towards her. Suddenly the ground underneath him gave away. He started to fall."Noah, Noah!" someone is calling for him, someone familiar. _Someone is shaking him violently. _Noah opened his eyes and was immediately blinded by the bright light. He brought his hands to cover them. "Finally you are awake" said the familiar voice. Where was he? He was lying in some kind of bed. He looked around. This was not his room, but looked familiar. "Noah, look at me." Again that familiar voice! Noah Glanced over to his left to look for the source. There was a man hovering over him. He squinted his eyes to focus on his face. Jake! His step brother! Then this must be Jake's room. But what was he doing here? As if reading his mind another voice called out "what's happened to him?" Noah glanced over Jake's shoulder to find Finn's tall figure standing near the door. "He got beat up in underground tourney" Jake replied. Oh! Now he remembered. He got bested by that pesky lady boy Kurt Hummel.

"What? Are you kidding with me?" Finn sounded utterly baffled. Well, he should be. Noah Puckerman , the' speed star', undisputed king of battle arena was defeated. Not only defeated, destroyed by the local flower queen Kurt Hummel. _It's an utter disgrace._

"Who defeated him?" Finn directed his next question to Jake.

"Some fighter from outside, you wouldn't know him." Noah answered before Jake could open his mouth. Though Noah wanted nothing more than to rearrange Kurt's face in the most excruciating way possible, he wasn't going to rat Kurt out to Finn, Kurt's brother. After all Kurt was now a fellow fighter and Noah was sure papa Hummel didn't know his son's secret shenanigan's in this illegal and highly dangerous tournament. Noah knew how protective Finn was to Kurt. He would waste no time to involve his parents if he so much as gets a whiff of the situation.

"Must be real tough guy, huh…but what are you doing in Jake's place?" Finn asked again.

"Well, he was passed out after the game, so the game coordinator contacted me. We couldn't possibly take him to his own place..so I brought him here." Jake replied.

"Oh, yeah, you are right." Finn muttered in an understanding voice.

"Why are you here, Finn?" Noah asked.

"Well I came here to give you a verbal beat down. But seeing you like this I am not so sure"

"About what?"

"You need to back off Kurt. It's not cool."

"What the hell are you talking about dude?"

"Don't play dumb. You know what I am talking about. You roughed up Kurt in the market the other day. Everyone saw it."

"I was just talking to him!"

"I know how you _talk _to him."

"When did you become such loving _brother? _If I remember correctly not long ago you himself…"

"Those days are behind me Puck and yeah he _is _my brother." Finn said forcefully "….. And I consider you a friend, so as a friend I beg you, please leave Kurt alone" With that Finn exited the room.

"That was a little dramatic! If he only knew what his precious brother did to you he would have a blast." Jake commented absent mindedly. Puck shot him a death glare.

"Wait what exactly did he do to you? You weren't exactly passed out. It was more like, you were…. sleeping" Jake asked.

What did Kurt did to him?"I wish I knew" He murmured. But he needed to know. There was something very uncanny about this whole situation. But what, he wasn't sure.

Blaine was glad they chose this place for their rendezvous. It was the same field at the outskirts of the city, where he encountered Noah and his sister. It was a quaint little stretch of land covered in soft green grass, extending to the north from where arose the mighty hill in a step wise fashion. In the east it was bordered by the long stretch of fence that separated it from the neighboring farm houses. A rivulet came cascading down from the hill and hugged the meadow like a serpentine ribbon from west to south before entering the town. A single mighty tree was standing tall in the middle of all this. A gentle breeze started blowing through its leaves stirring them from their slumber and creating a whispery rustling noise, as if the tree was trying to say something.

"Where did you get this mattress and basket?" Kurt enquired. They were sitting underneath the tree on a mattress. Blaine had decided on a picnic for their second date. Wait, does that mean their first meeting was a _date?_

"Actually these articles belong to the wonderful lady who owns my motel." Blaine replied.

"And she just gave these to you, a guy she barely knows, like that?" Kurt couldn't hide his amazement.

"What can I say darling? My _charm is _irresistible." Blaine smirked earning an eye roll from Kurt.

"So, tell me more about your charm gorgeous?" Blaine asked.

"There's not much to tell. What do you want to know?"

"Like, is it familial? I mean does it run in family? You know most of the elemental charms are inherited from parent to child. So there are even instances of inter marriage to keep the blood line pure."

"Well my father is a mechanic, his charm deals with tinkering with mechanical objects. My mother….well you can say my charm comes from my mother"

"Your father is a mechanic? Huh, then he might look into my motorrad. It is having some problems."

"Well, If you like I can look into it….for free"

"You can repair machines? I never pegged you to be a mechanic."

"I help out my dad at the garage from time to time; I might have picked a thing or two." Kurt laughed.

"Wow Kurt! Just wow! Just when I thought you could not be any more impressive, you prove me wrong again." Blaine gushed, and meant every word of it. _Kurt is so out there! He is fashionable even in this provincial town, can dance himself to victory but still knows his way around machines._ "But something tells me Kurt Hummel wants more from life than being a mechanic."

"And what makes you think that?" Kurt raised his left brow inquisitively.

"Just a hunch"

"Your hunch is correct. I want to write stories. Not a very realistic job option in this looserville, I am afraid"

"What kind of stories do you want to write? Short stories? Novels?...or Plays perhaps?"

"The kind that never ends."

"What?"

"Sorry, I meant something that doesn't end quickly like a short story, but continues for a long time."

"So have you written anything yet?"

"Actually I am working on one currently." Kurt answered sheepishly. "It's a work in progress."

"Wonderful! I call dibs on the first finished draft."

"What about you? What do you want to do in life? I figure being a vagabond is not something one would want" Kurt asked.

Blaine hadn't told this to anyone in a long time. Even when by himself he tried to not think about it. It's a part of his life he desperately wanted to forget. It was a promise of a life he could never have. A hope that died long ago and the ghost of a faded dream that would haunt him till this day.

"Hey, if you don't want, you don't have to tell." Kurt said with a concern etched voice and as an afterthought he reached across to grab Blaine's hand in a soft grasp. Blaine hadn't even realized his body had become so tensed, but under Kurt's soft touch all the tensions seem to go away and a soothing feeling crept through his hand, up his arm and reached straight to his heart. "Your hand is really soft" Blaine said throatily.

Kurt's rosy cheeks turned a bright shade of crimson as he quickly withdrew his hand. Blaine let out a throaty chortle and said "I wanted to be a concert pianist."

"Wow Blaine! That's amazing! But why…"

"Please don't ask why I'm not pursuing that dream because it is a complicated story, one I don't feel in indulging now" That effectively silenced Kurt. Blaine actually felt quite good admitting it to Kurt. Of course he couldn't share the whole thing with Kurt but saying only this much, he felt a lot more relaxed.

Kurt lied down on the mattress staring at the small windows of sky seen through the crisscross mesh of leaves and branches."Do you know there's a fascinating story about this ancient tree?" Kurt muttered wistfully.

"There is?"

"Yes. It is about two friends who lived here a long time ago and about the woman they both loved. They both knew each other's feelings, so none of them proposed to the girl fearing it would hurt the other. One day this region was thrown into an idiotic war. Many of the young men were forced to join the army; among them was one of the two friends. The friend that remained home, his relationship with the woman grew strong. One day the woman confessed her love him. He at first didn't want to betray his friend but after much persuasion relented." Kurt stopped to catch a breath, then continued "The two lovers decided to marry each other but on the day of their wedding news from battle field came. Their friend had died. The man soon called off the wedding. He spiraled into deep depression. He wouldn't talk to anyone, stopped working, and wouldn't eat. Only thing he did was to come here every day and sit under this tree, a place where he and his friend used to hang out. No one could convince him to do otherwise, not even the woman he was supposed to marry. One day he disappeared from under the tree. The women said she had seen the man turn into an angel and disappear in the clouds. The tree that day burst in full bloom. It is said no one ever seen the tree in bloom since. There's a name this tree is known by, Aikō-ka no ki. It roughly means 'The tree of lovers' "

"It's such a sad story." Blaine said after a long pause. He quietly lied down beside Kurt. "It is" Kurt affirmed. Blaine closed his eyes.

Blaine didn't know how long he laid there with his eyes closed; he was starting to doze off a bit but was awakened by Kurt's voice. "Blaine, thank you."

"What for?" Blaine was baffled.

"For taking down Karofsky. He and his cronies had made my life a living hell for quite some times."

"I'm sorry to hear about that. It's only a silly competition though and I hardly think it'll change his behavior."

"Still it felt good to see him got beat up like that" Kurt said in a steely voice then added with a chuckle "You must think I am a horrible person for thinking like that."

"No, you are not. They are ones who are horrible, for making you feel that way" Blaine slowly engulfed Kurt's hand in his. Kurt didn't pull away.

"There are an awful lot of ravens in this town, don't you think?" Kurt asked suddenly.

"What?"

"Haven't you noticed, this town is raven infested? Look over there." Kurt said pointing at one of the lower branches of the tree. Yes, there indeed was a queer looking raven sitting there.

"You don't like ravens?"

"No, I hate them."

"Then it'll have to go" Blaine threw a flame bullet which effectively scared the raven. It let out a caw and flew away.

"Aww! Aren't you my knight in shining armor" Kurt laughed.

"I could be if you'll have me." Blaine said solemnly.

Kurt remained silent for few minutes. Then he shifted towards Blaine placing his head against Blaine's shoulder, he said softly "I will"

"Then as long as I am here, you don't have to be afraid of the ravens or Karofsky or any of the bullies that torment you…I'll protect you."

Kurt just smiled and closed his eyes.

Dave Karofsky was lying in the hospital bed sulking. He had suffered a humiliating defeat to that fancy pants flame thrower. He had sustained quite the burn but thanks to his muscle mass none of them are deep. Doctors said he should get released by tomorrow. Karofsky looked through the window; the sun was about to se and the sky is turning a beautiful shade of crimson. Suddenly his vision froze and cold shiver ran down his spine. There's a shadow of a man lurking outside the window, whose face was shrouded in darkness. The man lifted his left hand and Karofsky was momentarily blinded by a silvery flash of light. A scythe! Glowing menacingly in the last rays of sun, like some sort of sinister grin.

Karofsky wanted to shout but couldn't find his voice.

He closed his eyes and braced himself.

There was a creaking sound of a door opening.

Karofsky opened his eyes to find the nurse standing with his medicine.

He quickly looked at the window. The man was gone.

**Notes:**  
So, what do you think? Good, bad, average? Let me know. Again all constructive criticisms and reviews are highly appreciated. Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon. :)


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